Sunday February 17, 2019

Activision Blizzard revealed why it was severing ties with Bungie during this week’s conference call: Destiny simply wasn’t making enough money. "Destiny is highly critically acclaimed, high quality content, but it was not meeting our financial expectations," said President and Chief Operating Officer Coddy Johnson. He also said the game was tying up talent, as other developers (e.g., High Moon and Vicarious Visions) were tasked to assist Bungie in pumping out content faster.

When Activision Blizzard management conducted a financial review for 2019, the company saw signs that indicated Destiny would not be a "material contributor" to the company's profit. Not only that, but Activision Blizzard assigned some of its own studios, including High Moon Studios and Vicarious Visions, to assist Bungie in developing Destiny content faster. "[Bungie was] tying up one of our scarcest resources--developer talent," Johnson said.